BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The drought is leaving its withering mark all across the state.

As the cost of corn rises, farmers planted more than in recent years, but the gamble is blowing up on some, with a drought not only drying up their crop, but emptying their pockets too.

“Those are the guys that are really, really going to take a whooping — and anybody who doesn’t have irrigation,” said Les Dietz, packing supervisor at Baugher’s Farm in Westminster.

Dietz works with an extensive irrigation system that is raising costs about 15 percent this month, but it’s been the only way his crops have been saved, he said.

“Nobody in this industry wants to see weather like we’re having right now; it’s pitiful, the cornfields,” he said.

Farmers in Maryland expect a drought ever year, but it usually doesn’t come so early.

“This drought is probably like any August drought, but the problem is, it’s only July,” Dietz said.

And the crushing effect on corn creates other problems as well, because livestock that eat corn have a limited food supply.

They can’t turn to hay either, because it’s too dry to eat.

“It’s just going to increase my cost tremendously,” said Dawn Bero, an organic farmer in Street.

It’s her first year trying to grow her own hay, so her hopes of making more money than in past years is shrinking by the day.

“There’s nothing I can really do to make the grass grow,” she said. “Do the rain dance.”

She said if this drought continues through the summer, she’ll lose 30 percent of profits.

Of the three or four hay harvests a season, most have lost their second, Harford County Agricultural Coordinator John Sullivan said.

“A lot of farmers put in extra this year, and now there’s a wait-and-see attitude,” Sullivan said. “We’re hoping it doesn’t dry out all summer.”

msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

10:08 AM MST on Fri., May. 9, 2008 re: "Program would shift farmers� excess water to municipalities"

Examiner Reader said:
Then what happens when the farmer's neighbor's well runs dry?

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2:02 PM MST on Mon., Jan. 21, 2008 re: "Harford has state�s only robotic milking machine"

Examiner Reader said:
why does the cow look green?

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9:03 AM MST on Tue., Jul. 10, 2007 re: "Drought killing corn crop early this year, affecting livestock"

Examiner Reader said:
The cows are out of luck, now that we are using corn for fuel. What a plan. It sounds good during good growing seasons, but what do you do now? We need to stop screwing around with band aids to fix our fuel supply problems and get serious about resources that are proven to work. Nuclear power, new refineries and drilling.

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12:17 PM MST on Fri., Jun. 15, 2007 re: "Harford has state�s only robotic milking machine"

Examiner Reader said:
I saw my grandfather hand milk cows in a barn with only an oil lantern for light. What's the world coming to!!!

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11:53 AM MST on Fri., Jun. 15, 2007 re: "Harford has state�s only robotic milking machine"

Examiner Reader said:
Isn't it a little demeaning to refer to beautiful dairy cows as "toddlers" and a magnificent robotic milker as a "toy". The technology blows my mind that a cow can be milked by a robot. Good for the Dallams! Kate makes the BEST ice cream in the world at Broom's Bloom Dairy Store.

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9:11 AM MST on Fri., Jun. 15, 2007 re: "Harford has state�s only robotic milking machine"

Examiner Reader said:
Very interesting article on the robot. However, cows surely get more than "a pellet" while being milked. One pellet would be about the size of a piece of dogfood and would hardly lure the cows to the robot. I hope the cows get a good portion of pellets dumped in front of them when they enter the robot.

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12:49 PM MST on Tue., May. 22, 2007 re: "New legislation to help preserve farms and aid the environment"

Examiner Reader said:
That doesn't seem like a lot of milk production. are you missing a few zeros? Tim Feeser Carroll County Commissioners office

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4:57 AM MST on Thu., May. 3, 2007 re: "Cost of milk leaves gas prices in the dust"

Huh? said:
Doesn't the government subsidize milk? What an economic ripoff of citizens. Produce extra milk, waste lots of it then charge more for the little bit that is left.....amazing!

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